Recently, performance of electronic equipment has increased dramatically with a commensurate reduction in equipment size. Higher performance has resulted in more internal heat and higher operating temperature. Without effective dissipation of the increased heat, reliability and life span of the associated electronic equipment will be adversely affected.
To dissipate heat from electronic equipment, conventional heat sinks and fans are used. Conventional heat sinks use fins to increase the surface area so more heat can be transferred and dissipated. However, smaller electronic equipment size limits the number and size of fins that can be used to effectively dissipate heat generated by the electronic equipment. Therefore, using a heat pipe is necessary for heat dissipation in small, high performance electronic equipment.
A conventional heat pipe uses a single-wall tube to dissipate heat generated by the electronic equipment. As heat generated increases and size decreases in modern, high performance, high power electronic devices, the conventional heat pipe is not adequate to dissipate heat generated.